Thick and Thirsty with Permajet

Before you write in to complain that I have singled you out for abuse, let me say that having a pint of beer is perfectly alright with me. 3 or 4 are fine. I find that after the 8th one people get argumentative...The thirsty I was talking about was for printer ink.

As for thick, I meant of the 310 gsm weight of the latest Permajet paper that has gone through the Epson 3880 here at the shop. It was the Portrait Velvet 310 from a test pack. We needed a stiff substrate for a presentation certificate and this seemed to fill the bill.

Like all thicker papers, it does have a little curl inherent - I make sure that before it goes through an Epson I gently flatten it out at the corners with my fingers. It is not a fault in any of the paper - it is related to the temperature and humidity at the time.

I also make sure that I reset the platen gap on the printer - from "standard" to "wider". There is little, if any degradation of the resolution on the printed image, and the extra space makes sure that there will be no overstrike of the head.

The best place to run thicker papers into an Epson is the front feed tray. It has a straight path for the paper to go and does not impose any bend on it. You need to be sure that there is enough space behind he printer for it to run back into when it loads and the receival shelf fully extended at the front.

OK - that said, and the laptop telling the printer that you want to use the front tray, you can press the button. I did an out flowed perhaps the nicest matt-surfaced print that I have ever seen. No flaws on the surface and perfect colour.

One superb certificate in one print. No waste.

Win.